A Good Thought Too Far
by Vashti
Summary: DG felt the blood drain from her face.  'I-I didn't see any kids come out of the travel storm,' she admitted.  'Only you.'


**Title**: A Good Thought Too Far  
><strong>Author<strong>: Vashti (tvashti)  
><strong>Fandom<strong>: Tin Man/Inception  
><strong>Character(s)<strong>: DG, Dominic Cobb, Cobb children  
><strong>Rating<strong>: PG  
><strong>Summary<strong>: DG is surprised when the travel storm she calls drops someone off instead of picking her up. He's not exactly pleased himself.  
><strong>Length<strong>: ~1,400 words  
><strong>Disclaimer<strong>: I don't know you. You don't know me. Let's keep it that way.  
><strong>Dedication<strong>: Inspired, in part, by a writing conversation I had with a geek-friend who's trying to get back into fanfic. I doubt either of us saw this coming. (Although if we had, we both would have guessed Inception would be at least half the cross.)  
><strong>Notes<strong>: Written thoroughly on the fly. I've done a spellcheck but nothing else. I welcome opinions, criticisms and verbal head-scratching. Advice regarding the handling, or not, of guns from jaguarx13. All mishandling is my own fault.

* * *

><p>A Good Thought Too Far<br>by Vashti

The travel storm came to the clearing on the far side of Finaqua when she called, but even DG knew something about it wasn't right. Then it spat someone out nearly at her feet: a man - who was wearing Other Side boat shoes when he stood.

DG swore. The travel storm was supposed to go to the Other Side, not originate there. It certainly wasn't supposed to pick up an unwilling passenger. Dashing to the stranger, DG tried to get it together as the man struggled to keep his feet. He was blond, about average height, she figured, and kinda stocky. She was already spilling apologies as fast as she could take a fresh breath as she slid to a stop by his side in the dew damp grass. "Are you okay?"

His eyes were a mild blue when they met hers, but his expression was sharp as tacks. "Where are my children?"

DG felt the blood drain from her face. "I-I didn't see any kids come out of the travel storm," she admitted. "Only you."

"Travel storm?"

"Yeah. They look like tornadoes. Really single-minded tornadoes." DG pulled at her fingertips as she stepped away from him.

His eyes narrowed. "Who are you?"

"Um, my name's DG. What's yours?"

"Who sent you?"

DG's face scrunched. "No one, really. I mean Tutor has been pushing me to practice, especially the really complicated stuff like travel storms, but I'm pretty sure he didn't intend for me to try one unsupervised."

He was looking at her strangely—not that she could blame him. "I've never heard of the Tutor Group."

"Oh! No, no, not a group. Tutor is my, um...well he's my tutor. He has a real first name. I _presume_ he has a real first name, at least."

A gun seemed to appear in his hands.

DG threw up his hands, quickly backing away. "Whoa, whoa, whoa. I don't want to hurt you."

"Neither do I. Tell me where my kids are, who you are and who you're working for, then we can get out of this dream."

Very serious now, DG said, "I told you, I don't know where your kids are. I wish I did. I feel really awful about that, and I'm more than willing to help you find them, but you've gotta put the gun down or something bad's going to happen."

"Tell me what I want to know and I'll return the gun."

"To_ where_? The black hole you hide it in?"

He ignored her. "My kids, who you are and who you're affiliated with."

"Your kids...unknown. Which is unfortunate but true, and fixable if you'll stop pointing that gun at me. I told you who I am. And I'm affiliated..." She cringed. "I'm affiliated with the crown."

"Since when did America have a monarchy?"

"This isn't-"

But before she could finish her sentence, he was lifting the gun to his own temple.

DG's hands flicked forward, glowing faintly as she wrenched the gun from his hands. "What is wrong with you? What the heck do you want me to tell your kids when we find them? 'Hey, your dad is really against monarchies so he killed himself?'"

He shook his head. "If I shoot myself I'll leave the dream. Why am I even bothering to explain this to you. You're a projection. You can't understand."

"A what? I am not a projection. I'm a DG and I'm right here, thank you very much." Maybe she'd been a princess for too long, but she wasn't amused by having someone talk about her like she wasn't there.

"Then how do you explain what you just did?"

"The saving-your-life thing? Magic. You're in the Outer Zone. Magic works here."

He laughed, scrubbing his face as he did so. He turned away from her. "The Outer Zone. Great. What did your dreamer eat for dinner last night. I think he's got his genres crossed."

"There _is_ no dreamer. Not the kind you're talking about." The gun was uncomfortably heavy in her hands. DG tried tucking it into her waistband, after checking the safety first, but it dragged at her trousers. Crouching, she let it gently fall into the grassy carpet, then placed a foot on it. Also uncomfortable but-

"What do you think you're doing?" he asked, eyes wide and staring at her foot.

"What does it look like I'm doing? Keeping a crazy man from his weapon of choice"

He thrust both hands into his hair, turning sharply away from her. Suddenly he was pulling a chain out from under his shirt. DG wanted to take a closer look but didn't dare move from the gun under her foot. Whatever was on the end of the chain, he turned it over and over in his hands, muttering and shaking his head.

"No. This is not possible. No."

"What do you remember?" DG said suddenly. "Before this? What do you remember from just before this? See, in my dreams, I never get to a place, I'm just there wherever there is. Even when I'm traveling, either I never get there or the dream fastforwards to being in the place I was going to." She pressed on even as brought his head up to stare at her. "So what do you remember before being dumped out here in the middle of a field?"

He eyed her for a very long moment before saying slowly, cautiously, "I'd put my children to bed. I was going to sit out on the porch for a while before getting to some work, but the stars were so lovely I went out into the yard to get a better look at them. I wasn't out long when the wind picked up."

"God...I bet you didn't even see the travel storm coming."

"I did. I did see something coming. But I thought it was just a strong gust of the Santa Ana's. It's been bad this-"

"Santa Ana?" DG frowned. "Isn't that a freak windstorm that happens in California?" she asked, her mind hitting on an old TV reference to the event.

"If you can call a yearly occurrence a freak phenomena, sure. You're say your travel storms are Santa Ana winds?"

"Not at all. They're tornadoes." At his incredulous expression, she said, "Look, if I'm wrong and this is really a dream all happening in yours or someone else's head then why don't you try conjuring up a new gun to kill yourself with. I mean, you 'know' you're dreaming now, right? That's lucid dreaming. Which means you can do whatever you want. So go ahead. New gun, old dream."

DG kept waiting for the man to do something, but it wasn't until he stared at his empty hands with deep confusion did she understand that he'd been trying. Satisfied that he was well and truly unarmed now, DG approached him again. "Look, I know this sounds bad. Horrible. But, as you can see, time runs a little differently here in the OZ than it does on the Other Side. I'll take you to go see my mom. After she's done giving me pity-eyes and a sad lecture, I'm sure she can send you back to California. Geez," she said more to herself than the man, "freaking California. Well done, Deeg."

The confusion had returned to his expression. "Who's your mother? Can she do...magic, too?"

"I should hope so. She's Queen of the Outer Zone, after all." DG gave him a small, close-lipped smile. She was the one who'd gotten him into this after all. "Don't worry. I'm a bit atrophied, magically, but Mom's amazing."

He nodded, suddenly looking much less stocky and much more careworn. For the first time DG noticed the dark smudges under his eyes, as if he hadn't had a good night's sleep in a long while, and the stress lines down the center of his forehead. She jerked her head in the general direction of the summer palace. "This way."

He nodded again, beginning to follow her. "My gun. We can't leave it here. Someone might find it."

"With my luck, the wrong someone," she muttered. DG lifted her right hand, a faint glow surrounding it. The gun flew out of the grass and smacked her palm. "Ow!" She transferred the gun to the other hand so she could shake out her right. "Maybe try carrying a smaller weapon next time."

He smiled (that had been the point) but now that he understood they weren't dreaming, a lot of the oomph seemed to have gone out of him. DG touched his arm. "I'm sorry."

"Get me back to my kids and all will be forgiven."

She nodded. "Hey, you never did tell me your name."

He extended a hand. "Cobb. Dominic Cobb."

DG took it. "DG. Crown Princess of the OZ."

[in]Fin[ite]


End file.
